September 22, 2008 – 7:00 am
For graphic designers, there are three main job situations: an in-house art department, a studio/firm/agency, or freelance.
I remember when I was close to graduating college in 2006, the professors asked us which situation appealed to us the most and why. At the time, I wanted to be an in-house designer because I thought a situation like that would afford me the most stability without the huge time commitment that I had always heard was required of studio designers.
Now that I’ve been an in-house designer for almost 3 years (I started working before I graduated), I’m wondering what the pros and cons really are for other positions.
September 17, 2008 – 7:00 am
What do you think the most important thing about graphic design is?
knowing what graphic design is (or isn’t!)?
learning about the Elements and Principles of design?
being flexible and adapting to be what the client needs, be it illustrator, designer, copy writer or web developer?
a set of rules or a creed?
just practicing?
problem solving skills?
your title?
Come join the discussion!
September 5, 2008 – 7:00 am
Creativity is not just about how good of a designer you are, it’s about how well you can solve problems and find connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.
In this post, I’ll go over some sites that have many exercises for you to improve your creativity, including Edward de Bono’s How to Have Creative Ideas, Von Glitschka’s squiggle line exercises, doodlage, silhouette reinvention and image streaming. You’re sure to feel creative after this post!
Sometimes looking for inspiration from designs you think are good can be overwhelming. You get sucked in to how good the design is and then start doubting that you could ever come up with something so creative. Don’t fall into that trap! Let the good design really be an inspiration to you. Learn from it and put your own spin on it. After all, good designers copy, great designers steal!
So how can you learn from good design? How do you make it work for you?
Mistakes happen. Some even say you should make mistakes faster so that you can learn from them! They can’t be completely avoided, but if you know what to look for, you can learn something without the pain of living through the aftermath.
A while ago , I posted Three Devastating Mistakes Every Designer Will Make and How […]
Some of you may know that I’m not a traditionally educated designer or Web developer; I learned everything from the Web and it has so far taken about a year and half to master Illustrator to such a degree that I can teach others. I’m not a particularly good designer and I can’t present 40 pages of illustrations on Flickr that is a Bible for other designers, but knowing the tools of your trade guards against sleepless nights wondering “How do I make a grungy brush with flower patterns…?”
There can be so many impossible questions running through the head of a design student and even those fresh out of college and entering the field. I know I was pretty intimidated about many aspects of design, and the following questions were just a few of the things I wondered about.
I can’t draw at all, so […]
